Senate Resolution 25-005

SENATE RESOLUTION 25-005

BY SENATOR(S) Gonzales J. and Jodeh, Amabile, Ball, Bridges, Cutter, Danielson, Daugherty, Exum, Hinrichsen, Kipp, Kolker, Marchman, Michaelson Jenet, Mullica, Roberts, Rodriguez, Snyder, Sullivan, Weissman, Winter F., Coleman.

CONCERNING THE UNITED STATES FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S UNJUST USE OF THE ALIEN ENEMIES ACT TO INDISCRIMINATELY TARGET IMMIGRANTS.

WHEREAS, In his inaugural address on January 20, 2025, President Donald J. Trump announced his plan to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 for the federal government "to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to United States soil, including our cities and inner cities"; and

WHEREAS, At a campaign stop in Aurora, Colorado on October 11, 2024, Trump suggested the use of the Alien Enemies Act as part of his "Operation Aurora" plan to "target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American soil"; and

WHEREAS, The Alien Enemies Act is referenced in Project 2025, the blueprintorganized by the Heritage Foundation that aligns with over 60 actions that the Trump administration has taken in its first month; and

WHEREAS, After his inauguration, President Trump signed several executive orders related to immigration, including an executive order titled "Protecting the American People Against Invasion", which is designed to "expand the use of expedited removal" of undocumented immigrants under the guise of national security; and

WHEREAS, President Trump has declared a national emergency at the United States-Mexico border and has instructed several federal agencies, including Customs and Border Patrol and Immigration Customs and Enforcement, to indiscriminately target immigrants and undocumented people across the country; and

WHEREAS, President Trump has a history of repeatedly using dehumanizing language to describe immigrants; and

WHEREAS, During his previous term, President Trump used his authority as president to continue the Obama administration practice ofseparating families and detaining migrants, including children, in concentration camps at the United States-Mexico border; and

WHEREAS, The Alien Enemies Act was first passed in 1798 as one of four Alien and Sedition Acts, giving authority during wartime to the president to detain or deport the natives and citizens of an enemy nation; and

WHEREAS, The United States is not at war with any country, and therefore there are neither natives nor citizens of an enemy nation to be detained; and

WHEREAS, In 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt used the Alien Enemies Act to arrest and unjustly detain innocent Japanese community leaders on the west coast of the United States without due process in Department of Justice "internment" camps; and

WHEREAS, In 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the forced removal of at least 120,000 people of Japanese descent, of whom approximately 70,000 were American citizens, for placement into concentration camps, stripping them of their possessions, businesses, livelihoods, and dignity; and

WHEREAS, The concentration camps were built hastily by the War Relocation Authority and kept the Japanese and Japanese-American incarcerees under armed surveillance at all times, forcing the detainees to face the hardships of extreme weather conditions, lack of privacy, mental and emotional stress, and the disruption of family unity; and

WHEREAS, One of the ten United States concentration camps, Amache, was built in Granada, Colorado and remains a physical reminder of this dark chapter of American history; and

WHEREAS, In 1988, the Civil Liberties Act was signed into law, which issued a formal apology for the wartime incarceration order and provided reparations to the living survivors of the incarceration; and

WHEREAS, Several times since 1988, Congress and the executive branch have issued apologies for wartime incarceration, and more recently a decision by the United States Supreme Court overruled the Korematsu decision, thereby acknowledging the error of this action; and

WHEREAS, The physical, emotional, and mental trauma of the incarceration is still felt to this day by Japanese-American survivors and their descendants; and

WHEREAS, Individuals, including many Japanese-American descendants of wartime incarceration, have voiced their concerns about the dehumanizing language and actions against immigrants in the United States and have drawn parallels between the Japanese-American mass incarceration and the actions of the federal government today against immigrants and their families; now, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the Senate of the Seventy-fifth General Assembly of the State of Colorado:

That we, the members of the Colorado Senate:

(1)  Express disapproval of the federal government's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to target non-citizens living peacefully in the United States; and

(2)  Call on Governor Jared Polis to vocalize his support for all Coloradans and use his office to build solidarity and trust with immigrant communities; and

(3)  Call on Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper of Colorado to sign on to Senator Mazie Hirono's introduced bill in the United States Senate, the Neighbors Not Enemies Act, to repeal the Alien Enemies Act; and

(4)  Call on Representatives Diana DeGette, Joe Neguse, Jeff Hurd, Lauren Boebert, Jeff Crank, Jason Crow, Brittany Pettersen, and Gabe Evans of Colorado to sign on to Representative Ilhan Omar's introduced bill in the United States House of Representatives, the Neighbors Not Enemies Act, to repeal the Alien Enemies Act.